I recently discovered a new Yahoo site called “18 Seconds.Org“, but it is probably easier to get there by going to http://green.yahoo.com. The site is designed to encourage people to switch their incandescent bulbs compact fluorescent bulbs to save energy and money.

Thanks to Paul Stamatiou for pointing this out. As a right-wing conservative, you might already think I’m betraying the cause by pointing this out, but I don’t think so. Here’s why.

Seth Godin breaks his pattern of deep analysis and asks a simple question: If no one reads your post, does it exist? He goes on.

What do most people get out of blogging? After all, most blogs are virtually unread by outsiders…

The act of writing a blog changes people, especially business people. The first thing it does is change posture. Once you realize that no HAS to read your blog, that you can’t MAKE them read your blog, you approach writing with humility and view readers with gratitude.

Dr. George Grant recently posted the following story on his blog. On the off-chance you don’t visit his blog and read it directly, I’ll repost it here, but I encourage you to subscribe to his blog at your next convenience.

My friend James Sauer writes, “I’ve got a problem with Chesterton. The problem is that I think he is a wonderful, wise, witty, and pious man; after reading his works, I never leave the page without feeling edified.”

My parents are selling their beautiful Titusville home in the quiet and peaceful Windover Farms subdivision in Titusville. They just lowered the price a bit, so if you are thinking of finding a nice one-acre lot and having a home to raise your family near the space center, take a look at it. I can personally attest to it being a wonderful home, with a host of amenities. Five bedroom, three baths, 3,800 living square feet. If you work at Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and have children and thinking of moving up a bit in size and features, this is a great house to raise your family in, only five to ten minutes from work, and with plenty of room to grow - or even add a pool someday.

I’m loathe to start a speed link section like so many other bloggers, but I’m ensnared by the possibility that information that some readers might want to know about is passing them by while I wrestle whether to write a long or short post about some of these items. So here is my first attempt at speed-linking with brief explanations.

Brian Bailey has a new book called The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs. I’m really looking forward to getting this and reading this as soon as time, money, and family allow. Thanks to Merlin Mann for pointing this out. Merlin is a contributor to the book.

Saw this great quote at WorkHappy.Net, by a man named Charles Kingsley:

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

I didn’t know who Charles Kingsley was so I went to Wikipedia and discovered he was an English novelist who wrote the novel Westward Ho! He died in 1875 so I thought that made the quote even more interesting. Apparently, there was enough people back during the 1800’s who were trying to keep up with the Jones’, that Kingsley felt the need to make this distinction about the proper direction to take in life. This was an attempt on his part to help his fellow man.

If you are a Garrison Keillor fan, you should read this. If you aren’t, then you should try (try!) and become one. I really love to listen to Garrison and the only tragedy in life is that my enjoyment of his readings, his show, (and his recent movie), is tempered with the knowledge that life is too short. He’s been doing this for 30 years. I’ll never catch up.

But, Lifehacker has reported that Keillor’s “News from Lake Wobegon” is now available as a free podcast (which means you can download it and listen to it on your computer or a portable MP3 player, which might even mean your cell phone if you have a fairly new one). I don’t think I’ve heard an episode yet that I didn’t laugh at and get a little more insight into life.

According to Guy Kawasaki’s Asshole Rating Self-Exam (ARSE), I scored an 11. I don’t know what the highest score could have been, but I thought my rating would be worse. I feel I perhaps have hope of making a turnaround if some good friends could see their way to hang in there and wait for the new and improved Lawrence to evolve.

Here’s a good idea for my friends (and enemies!). Take the quiz, too. If your score is higher than 11, then maybe we can consider that you are the problem - not me. If we are tied, we’ll have to settle our differences with an arm-wrestling contest (in which I will use nasty tricks) or one of those IQ test books you can buy at Barnes & Noble.

Is it just me or is this just a truly deplorable (and laughable) sign of the post-modern culture we live in? I received this in my email box:

STOP the Stalker- UCF Victim Services Event: UCF Victim Services is hosting STOP the Stalker event to recognize Stalking Awareness month on January, 30th, 2007. The event will take place on the Student Union patio at 11am- 3pm. We will have free food for students, a game show with great prizes and information about Stalking and Cyberstalking. 102 Jamz will also be broadcasting live form the Union. A FREE self defense class will be offered in Key West C and D from 2:30pm - 3:30pm. A Cyberstalking presentation presented by UCF’s computer crimes officer Eric Walton, will take place from 7:30- 9pm in Cape Florida A and B. Please come out and join us for an exciting event and to learn more about the crime that is rapidly increasing on college campuses for both males and females.

It’s 2007. Few people in your neighborhood read blogs. Depending on where you work, you may have coworkers who don’t know what a blog is, much less a “blog reader”. Most people you know read more each year from magazines, trade journals, books, and newspapers than they ever read from a blog.

Not me.

I’m going to tell you why reading blogs is absolutely crucial if you want to be smart, well-informed, and street-smart. Moreover, I’m going to show you how reading blogs will make you more sociable, friendly, and confident.

If you live in Brevard, as many of my readers do, and are looking for great places to find free internet wireless access, a good place to start is this page in Brevard Directory. Some Palm Bay residents have pointed out that even the new Starbucks in Palm Bay is not offering wireless access yet. That sure is a mystery to me. Even the Wendy’s at Palm Bay Road and Babcock has free wireless access, although the service there is a little weak since the access point is buried in the manager’s office.

After discovering Adultitis by Jason and Kim Kotecki, I almost had to laugh at how uptight we adults have become. I really liked their 40-Day Escape Plan. Unfortunately, with six children and a very busy schedule, I don’t quite have the luxury of doing my 40 days all in a row as they did. However, my wife has sort of encouraged us to do the 40-Day plan, so I thought I’d do it as I have time.

There are lots of things you can do to speed up a website. But that is a whole article in and of itself. For now, to make my blog more comfortable for my many new visitors, I removed some of my badges and third-party content on my sidebar. For now, this includes my Traineo badge that details how much weight I’m losing, my Amazon Wishlist, and my music listening profile on Last FM. They aren’t gone forever - you can still see them on my “About Lawrence” page.

For those who write me and wonder if I’m related to Duke or Lynn Salberg, the answer is no. At least not in anyway that I can figure out. Maybe if we went back hundreds of years to the middle ages, our ancestors might have all been huddling in the same ship that crossed the Atlantic or something.

I’m part of the Salberg clan that moved to the Melbourne area in 1973, from Miami. We lived here until about 1980 when my dad took a job with Aramco in Saudi Arabia. Then in 1990, we returned (just as Saddam was about to launch SCUD missiles into our hometown) to Melbourne. And we’ve pretty much been here ever since. Of course, our extended family also moved here in the late 1970’s.

If you’ve been thinking about the new year and some of those resolutions you’ve made, and if you live in the Brevard County area, what about considering your spiritual walk? If you are a Christian or read the Bible for inspiration, I can’t think of a better way to start the year out right then to attend a Search for Significance Seminar.

My friend, Jean LeStourgeon, is leading one in the South Brevard area from January 22 through January 25, 2007 from 5:30pm to 9:00pm each night. Jean is an excellent counselor and a very compassionate woman. She has great insight into things, so if you’ve had a tough 2006, this would be a great way to get your head and heart on the right path. Soon, 2007 will begin its stranglehold on your schedule, right about the time you start seeing Valentine’s Day cards in Walmart.